Last month I launched my first ever Skillshare class entitled 'Food Illustration: Design your Favourite Fruity Recipe' I will admit it sure was a challenge and a long journey, before I hit that final 'publish' button. Here is the intro video to this class.

These are my points to remember if you are considering becoming a Skillshare teacher

TIP 1 - DO NOT BE DAUNTED BY THE CLASS NOTES

Do follow the step by step approach laid out by the Skillshare team. Their advice is plentiful, far reaching and sound - they really want you to succeed !!! If in doubt just email them and they are happy to help.

TIP 2 - DECONSTRUCT THE PROJECT

Think in terms of producing a project that would be EASY for you e.g. watercolour whatever and turn it around, so you look at it from the eyes of a relative novice student. You may want to ask yourself:

-what materials or programs would they need

-how can I make the class videos as short and to the point as possible without leaving out important content

- what technique(s) will they learn

- what prior knowledge would they need for successful completion of the project ( e.g. basic Photoshop?)

TIP 3 - RECORDING THE CLASSES IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK

Make friends with the Modify>split clip> delete step in iMovie to rid videos of all there 'errs' and awkward pauses. I soon realised it was much better simply repeat the sentence again if I fluffed it than to record a whole new screencast ( where you record the screen of the Mac) When it came to editing it was much smoother.

TIP 4 - DO NOT UNDER ESTIMATE THE MARKETING

Skillshare point out that it is vital to have 25 student enrolments in the first two weeks to show in their trending classes. Here are some of the methods I used to bring awareness to my class:

- a week before the launch I linked my intro video (on Vimeo) to the profile of my IG to direct followers to it

- there were free class enrolment giveaways

- I created short animation which played on a loop in IG using the food icons created for this class

- I have reposted illustrated recipes created by students on IG to remind folks of my class

- had a giveaway of a set of my foodie postcards for the 1000th student to sign up

As mentioned right at the beginning it has only been a month since this first class launched however I feel that its been a worthwhile undertaking. Such has been the overwhelming positive response I felt compelled to work on another one with more guidance from Skillshare.

Again I chose a particular strength of mine which is drawing, and tried to condense it into a challenge with pen, paper and a timer. It is not a new concept but as creative sometimes we overthink and get in the way of ourselves. Committing to just drawing in three minutes can help with gaining fluency and confidence with drawing, and impact in other areas of your art life. You can watch the intro video to 3 Minute Drawing Challenge below.